Traversing I495 late in the day today…

…winding my way to Lowell… stuck in traffic… late for an appointment… balancing three demanding consulting clients and still was thinking more about words…

EduGenic… closer to photogenic or cryogenic

Connectivism… sexism, agisms… are isms good?

I’m going to start links to pages that are allegedly in English but read like Greek to me!

There is equity in accessibility. And, to me the current evolution of the web is a great equalizer… the digital divide is real… on many levels. There’s the issue of just plain physical access… but once there… is this a welcoming, engaging place? For the most part… let’s keep making it better!

8/30– new terms…

Squiddoo and a lense!

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This entry was posted on August 29, 2006 at 9:56 pm and is filed under TLT KA.
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2 Responses to “Traversing I495 late in the day today…”

I guess it’s about knowing who your audience might be, Carol. Once we realize that our humble posts, for instance, are, on occasion, read by more than simply our immediate colleagues or friends, then we need think carefully about whether our language is aimed, lazily sometimes, at a few who ‘speak the same language’ as ourselves, or at a wider audience who might need to be treated more carefully (and more courteously).

This is true at so many levels, Carol. I’m working my way at the moment through (some bits of) a book called “The Post-Formal Reader: Cognition and Education”. It is a collection of articles on ‘post-formal’ psychology and what this area can tell us about education, pedagogy, curriculum, etc. There are real insights, I think, scattered through the book – but it is almost entirely written in the most turgid, jargonistic and elitist language that I have come across in a long time. I don’t know much about the writers, but these ‘post-formal’ psychologists evidently see themselves as a ‘school of thought’ with their own language and style. The articles are uniformly opaque and use language as (what appears to me to be) a self-conscious tool for the exclusion of those not ‘in the know’.

On the Web, like you I have come across places that can have a good and worthwhile message, one that is worth reading, but which is expressed in a way that ensures that too few bother to read it or attempt to understand it.

Writing well, expressing your thoughts and ideas simply and eloquently, is just as important online as it is in the world of hard copy, and probably even more important. Clear concise language helps to create that ‘welcoming, engaging place’!